A collective agreement has been signed between Malta’s Government and six trade unions representing the country’s civil service employees. The deal, signed on 15 October 2012, secures an annual 2.5% wage increase over the six-year period covered by the agreement for Malta’s 30,000 civil servants. While the increase was welcomed by the unions, employers’ associations criticised the deal, saying that it was badly timed, coming at a time when workers across Europe were taking wage cuts.
Collective bargaining in Malta is conducted on a single employer basis at enterprise level. The only exception is in the civil service, where collective bargaining is conducted with unions representing different categories of employees in the sector.
Six unions took part in the negotiation process with government officials about the collective agreement for employees in the sector. They included the two largest trade unions, the General Workers’ Union (GWU) and the Union of United Workers (UHM). The others were the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN), the Medical Association of Malta (MAM), and the Malta Union of Professional Psychologists (MUPP).
A collective agreement was signed by these unions and the Finance Minister, Tonio Fenech, on 15 October 2012.
Forum, a loose confederation of unions representing various categories of professional workers, also took part in the event.
Around 30,000 civil servants had been waiting for the signing of this new collective agreement since the expiry of the previous agreement in 2010. The agreement, which covers a period of six years, gives civil service employees a 2.5% annual salary increase. Over the six years covered by the agreement this will amount to a 13% rise in income. Retired public servants will also receive the pay rise.
The new agreement also includes a number of family-friendly measures, and the introduction of flexitime. There is also the facility for workers to take part of their holiday leave on an hourly basis.
The agreement will introduce new measures on the settlement of industrial disputes (MT1202019I) and will improve the structured mobility within the public services’ ranks.
The GWU expressed its satisfaction with the agreement, claiming that its perseverance throughout the negotiation process and the collaboration of other unions, notably Forum and MUT, contributed to the successful outcome of the talks.
Finance Minister Fenech stressed that the agreement was transparent and gave certainty of stability to the whole country.
Malta’s Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi, said the agreement should serve as a model for the private sector. He urged the private sector to implement the same family-friendly measures which had been approved through the civil service negotiations.
Employers’ associations, however, were very critical of the agreement. They claimed that it was ill-timed and lacked fundamental pegging to a productivity benchmark.
The President of Malta’s Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, Tancred Tabone, said he could not understand the logic of the ‘generous wage increase’. He said the €60 million deal signed between the Maltese government and the unions came at a time when workers in various EU Member States were being forced to accept wage cuts rather than being given increases. He added that the Government should have seized this opportunity to end the half-day summer working time schedule which he claimed was ‘widely considered a luxury the country cannot afford’.
The Director General of the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA), Joseph Farrugia, while reiterating the need to tie wage increases with productivity stated:
…it would have been wiser to link expenditure with a targeted reduction in public sector employment to make the agreement cost-neutral or at least reduce its cost to the taxpayer.
He also remarked that the signing of this agreement, just months before the looming general election, may not have been mere coincidence.
The Director General of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, Vincent Farrugia, said the agreement would have repercussions in the wage-setting of private sector employees.
The satisfaction expressed by the trade unions involved in this agreement is understandable, since they managed to secure a wage increase for their members during a time when the Government has been under continuous pressure by the employers’ associations and the Central Bank of Malta to adopt a policy of wage restraint. On the other hand the agreement was two years in the making, since the previous one expired in 2010. Civil service employees may therefore claim that they had exercised restraint in accepting this two-year delay.
Saviour Rizzo, Centre for Labour Studies